Ethiopian Airlines plans to increase the frequency of its flights between its African hub and Chinese cities and plans to launch direct flights between Addis Ababa and Tokyo, says CEO, Tewolde Gebremariam.

Gebremariam says the carrier will increase flights between the Ethiopian capital and Chinese cities from 35 to 50 a week, to meet the growing demand from Chinese businesspeople, investors and tourists.

The airline also plans to boost its Japan services by connecting Tokyo and Addis Ababa with daily direct flights by 2021. The new service will use Tokyo’s Haneda Airport rather than Narita Airport, which it currently uses for its five times a week flight, with a transfer in Seoul.

The airline is in talks with China to increase flights to Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and other cities. Flights to Guangzhou will be increased to 14 per week from 10.

The airline will also add two more flights between its African hub and Singapore and is working toward access to Vietnam.